Figuring out how much time and energy to spend on prospective clients is a difficult balancing act. You need to spend enough time to make a sale to a genuine prospect, but you don't want to waste too much time on those who'll never buy.

After all, not all prospects are going to convert to paying customers. You can waste a lot of resources responding to prospects who aren't ready to buy, are using you to negotiate lower prices with competitors or are just plain "looky loos."

Realistically, you have to be responsive to all potential customers. But you can limit the amount of time, money and effort you spend on dead-end shoppers and turn more of them into paying customers.

Here are six tricks for responding to prospects:

1. Have standard information ready. Most prospects try to figure out whether a company is a good fit before taking up too much of their — or your — time.

Start by making sure your website clearly delineates what products or services you sell, what your specialties are and what geographic area you serve. Have templates for proposals or bids prepared so you can customize easily or fill in the blanks.

If you have to give detailed presentations, have a standard presentation template with slides showing your company's core competencies and examples of previous successful projects.

2. Ask questions. In professional sales terms, this is called qualifying the prospect.

By asking a few simple, nonintrusive questions, you get a much better sense of how serious the prospect is, what is important to that person, and how much time you should spend. Some questions to ask:

• What's the scope of the project?

• What's the time frame for the work to be started and completed?

• How soon will you be making a decision on a vendor?

• How many other bids are you getting?

• What are the most important considerations in your decision: price, quality, convenience?

3. Don't get starstruck. It's easy to get excited if a large or well-known company approaches you.

Sure, a Fortune 500 company would be nice to have as a marquee client, but don't lose perspective. Those kinds of clients often demand extensive proposals, take longer to make decisions and expect highly competitive bids.

Expect your proposal process to be a business development expense and make sure the project is profitable for you.

Give prospects a reason to make a decision sooner rather than later. Make your proposal time sensitive.(Photo: Gannett)

4. Create a ticking clock. Give prospects a reason to make a decision sooner rather than later.

Put off making a commitment until the last minute is human nature, but when clients dillydally, your own business often is left in the lurch.

Look for ways to give customers a deadline. Ideally, you can come up with an incentive — "I can get a discount on materials if you book within one week" — or help them realize you have a time crunch — "I've got an opening in my calendar in two weeks, but then I'm booked til August."

Make every bid time sensitive, so your proposal expires after a reasonable period.

5. Show your ankle, not the whole leg. When giving a proposal for your professional advice or services, be cautious about giving too much information in the proposal process.

Some prospects use proposals as a way of getting free advice. Then they use your plans with less expensive competitors.

I've found this to be true both of small customers and Fortune 500 companies.

6. Don't count your chickens before they hatch. It's easy to get excited about a prospect, especially if it's a big one.